Chapter Text
Kyoya hated waking up in someone else’s bed. He’d learnt this about himself very quickly as he started staying after hookups. Keeping his sexuality on the down-low for the first couple of years meant one night stands were his best option for a while. After about the third, he’d started sneaking out before even falling asleep, dredging out of the house with a fine layer of sweat and fluid still stuck to him. It was hardly his noblest endeavour but it was worth it for a good lay.
He shouldn’t have been shocked, of course. He knew his morning rage was infamous but he truly thought he had it in him to play it down for a sexual partner.
All that to say, he was utterly miserable when he peeled his eyes open to find a room other than his own. The moment of shock jolted him awake and he had no chance of drifting into consciousness pleasantly.
Shuffling off the bed with a groan, he wrangled on something somewhat presentable and glanced towards the alarm.
Ten. Great.
At least he’d missed the morning rush and could make his way down whenever he wanted without bumping into the others. He didn’t want to avoid his friends but, as much as he’d dropped the Shadow King act, he still felt a pressure to perform it to them. Rocking up in the jeans and jumper he felt comfortable in that morning… he’d have to explain himself even for just that.
He managed to get half way through breakfast before he saw any of them. He hoped his luck would last longer but at least it was Haruhi. She had more sense than to pry.
With a little wave she grabbed a bowl of rice in one hand and a banana in the other, and settled opposite him.
“Morning,” she said sweetly.
He really did understand why the others all fell for her. She was kind and soft but defiant and independent. Haruhi was a walking contradiction and, as a fellow walking contradiction, it put him at ease.
“Morning,” he said. “Sleep well?”
“Terrible,” she groaned. “Tamaki wanted to go over how the day had gone and plan today.”
“I’m sure that was fun.”
“Exhilarating,” she said, rolling her eyes as she dug into her food.
“Oh, I can imagine,” he said. “Our weekly host meeting were nothing if not erotic.”
Haruhi let out a loud laugh and covered her mouth quickly. The buffet wasn’t busy but there were enough retired couples to earn a few disapproving looks. He can’t imagine their matching loungewear helped.
She smiled brightly at him, eyes searching.
“What have you been up to the past few years? The Kyoya I knew would never.”
“Well,” he said, infected by her grin, “as much as I have to catch up on, I promise you’ve all missed just as much. I have a very exciting life.”
“Oh?”
“Let’s just say if I had someone I was extremely attracted to in my bed I wouldn’t be going over the day’s notes.”
Haruhi shook her head, trying not to laugh again.
“You sound like my father,” she said.
“I’ll take that as a compliment. I enjoy Ranka.”
“He’s coming for the ceremony, by the way.”
Kyoya smiled so widely he couldn’t stifle it at that. He’d hoped that would be the case so confirmation was very exciting. He wondered what it would be like to speak to him as an adult. Being out changed so much.
“I’m glad to hear it,” he said. “And Mr Suoh?”
“Is coming in the day. Tamaki didn’t think he would but he seems to be trying,” she explained. “We think he wants to repair the relationship before he becomes an estranged grandfather.”
Kyoya blinked dumbly at that, tracing his eyes up and down her small frame.
“Are you…”
“I’m not pregnant,” she whisper-shouted, swatting at him from across the table. “We aren’t planning to have children until I’m on a steady contract and we can count on Tamaki’s inheritance.”
He tried not to recoil at that. Somewhere in the back of his mind he’d assumed they were all getting out. It was naive, he knew, but he’d still thought…
Haruhi was never one to put up with rich person bullshit. She’d made that very clear. If anyone was going to rupture the cycle of wealth and throw the system in the air it was her.
He knew that it wasn’t that simple, of course. Raising a child meant compromise and prioritising things you may not want to. He knew that all too well.
“That sounds reasonable,” he said.
“And you?”
He squinted slightly, trying to decipher her question.
“We haven’t heard about any partners or the prospect of children or… inheritance?” she elaborated.
He smiled tightly. There were a million things he’d have to explain and one glaring elephant in the room that the whole group apparently just couldn’t see. It made things rather inconvenient. He knew that one person might but… he’d have to find out.
“No,” he said. “I just got out of a relationship but none have lasted longer than a year. No prospect of children. I don’t intend to torture them like that.”
“Oh,” she said, leaning back in her chair thoughtfully. “And… inheritance?”
“I haven’t spoken to my father in four years and have no intention of speaking to him again. I learnt two years ago that I’d been written out of his will. I’m completely financially independent and plan to remain that way going forward.”
She nodded along, as if this information wasn’t a shock. She seemed to take a minute to stew it over though.
“A lot really has changed,” she said.
“You don’t know the half of it,” he said.
As she opened her mouth to reply, she jumped at the sound of buzzing. Scrambling for her phone, she quickly pulled it from her back pocket and accepted the call.
“You’re so early!” she gasped. “Yes… okay can you wait for like half an hour? I’ll rush over now… no, it’s not an inconvenience don’t be silly… no, he’s not coming… I know… god, you should have seen him yesterday… worse… well, Kyoya- oh yeah, Kyoya is here and doing well… yeah… oh, stop… okay, I’ll see you in half an hour!”
She ended the call with a dramatic sigh and stared wistfully at her half finished rice.
“Kaoru?“ he asked.
She nodded.
“He was meant to have tons of delays but actually landed super early. Wanna come pick him up?”
He thought about it and very nearly agreed but decided against it. If things were as tense as they seemed, he’d rather not be trapped in a car with that.
He shook his head.
“I’d rather take some time and get ready for tonight.”
“Okay,” she said getting to her feet. “Have fun if I don’t see you before.”
“Will do,” he said. “And please go grab some more fruit to take with you. You look so sad it’s depressing me.”
“Shut up,” she laughed.
She grabbed two apples on the way out.
xxx
Back in his room, Kyoya threw himself onto the bed. It was already one by the time he finished breakfast and took a walk around the hotel.
The place was excessive. It was more of a resort than a hotel and a very nice one too. There was a pool outside and activities littered throughout. The sports area at the far side caught his eye immediately (more like the men playing sports, though he’d never tell).
When he finally got to his room, he was exhausted. He planned to flip through his phone for an hour until he had to start getting ready for the party but was quickly distracted by a text he’d missed.
Lucas: hey
Lucas: know you’re out of the country rn
Lucas: but I was wondering if I could get that book i leant you back?
Lucas: not immediately dw but just whenever you’re back
He sighed, dropping his phone into the covers beside him.
Lucas had been nice. Even now, after all was said and done, he was still painfully polite. Kyoya liked nice boys with a pretty face and a good nature. He felt like he was ruining them and some sick part of him enjoyed it.
A lifetime of being wrong and evil and bad made him crave that feeling. He wanted to defile and destroy but he fell in love so easily with men who softened his edges. Men who made him crave his own happiness. They gave him a sweet tooth.
Lucas had been just that. He wore down his walls and carved out a place for himself in Kyoya’s fortress heart. When he ended it, Kyoya wasn’t even as hurt as he thought he should be. Everything had been so easy it just felt like he was still floating.
It would have been easier if Lucas broke his heart. It would have been easier if any of the perfect romances he’d stumbled into broke his heart. Instead he was stuck with that one insidious teen heartbreak and a thousand emotionless hookups to chip away at him without letting him shatter and rebuild.
He’d stashed away so many half read books he wondered if he’d ever read one to the end.
He supposed it didn’t matter right now. It was no good lamenting the end of a relationship his companions couldn’t know about. All that work to create a life outside of the closet and here he was firmly back in it.
A knock at the door broke him away from his thoughts. He scrambled to open it and found Mori outside.
“Here,” Mori said simply, handing him an envelope and a sash reading ‘Team Tamaki’.
“Thank you,” he said.
“The party is on a yacht so it may get chilly. It’s black tie but it won’t be strict.”
Kyoya nodded and watched Mori give a single nod and walk away.
xxx
Giving himself a once-over, he headed downstairs. He could hardly remember the last time he’d worn a tux so he was glad he’d checked it still fit before he left Boston.
The others were already in the entryway, minus Tamaki. Immediately, he could tell the mood from dinner wouldn’t be shifting. If anything, it’d gotten worse.
His gaze locked onto Kaoru across the room, tucked away against the far wall. Unlike his brother, he hardly looked any different than when he left. Just his demeanour struck him as wrong. That boyish charm was gone and in place of his wolffish grin was a catlike smile. Time had craved out his soft edges until he looked sharp and regal; almost feline.
He tried to shake himself out of observing but it was hard. Years of working through that compulsion to watch and keep note and be on top of everything had hardly readied him for the people he found himself needing to monitor the most. This world of money and excess demanded a few cards up your sleeve and Kyoya’s only remaining weapon was spotting them. As in the dark as he was, he had to keep watching.
Kaoru seemed to spot him then. His gaze silently focused in on Kyoya, and the quirk of his animal smile flitted upward. Neither approached, breaking away after a moment of recognition.
The pair had never been particularly close but Kyoya knew the younger had noticed their unspoken kinship too. He’d always seen through him. He had a way of looking that caught him off guard on occasion. If Kyoya’s superpower was observing then Kaoru’s was sensing.
It didn’t take him long to realise Kaoru wasn’t interacting with the others. Honey and Mori would glance his way but, while the others mingled, Kaoru stayed stuck to the wall like a shadow. He’d chat idly with staff as they approached to refill his empty glass or tapped away at his phone. His performance looked strained even from his distance.
Just then, Tamaki came billowing into the entryway. He immediately let out a squeal and wrapped them up into a tight embrace.
“I can’t wait!” he shouted, earning a round of chuckles and nods.
xxx
Three things became clear as the party progressed.
The first was that the boat was very specifically decorated to Tamaki’s tastes. The whole deck was draped in pinks and reds, with hearts and roses over ever inch. It was garish and tacky, more valentines than stag.
He supposed he’d missed the organising committee. Though he’d hardly mourn the extra work, it felt like a slight to see his host club reduced to Tamaki’s tragic whims. For every great idea the blond had, Kyoya would mediate through about five layers of… this.
Presumably, Mori and Honey must have taken the whole job. The pair were resourceful and could work to a brief. He couldn’t fault them and wouldn’t say a bad word about the place but it didn’t stop it from looking like a twelve year old girl’s diary exploded.
The second thing that became clear was that Tamaki hadn’t spent much time away from Haruhi in the past months. He’d find it cute if it weren’t disconcerting. Of course Kyoya knew that married couples usually became joined at the hip. He was friends with plenty of married women back home who awed as their husbands clung like spider monkeys. It didn’t make it any less strange to see his friends fall prey.
A glass of wine in and Tamaki started pouting. Two and he spilled.
“But she might be worried,” he whined as Kyoya and Honey bought him away from the crowds.
“She trusts you,” Kyoya said.
“But men cheat on stag nights. I don’t want to. I love her so much,” he continued, running hands through his hair as he tipsily wriggled. “She should be here. It’s meant to be all my favourite people! She should be here cause she’s my favourite favourite.”
He sighed. Straightening his glasses in an old habit he thought he’d dropped.
“She needs her own night to celebrate how excited she is to marry you. You wouldn’t deprive her of her own celebration, would you?”
Tamaki seemed to mellow for a moment before deflating again.
“But what if she misses me?”
The last was more of a confirmation of what he already suspected: Kaoru was avoiding his brother.
As he was plied with wine and dance, Kyoya watched Kaoru begin to loosen up. He danced with Honey when he pulled him to the floor and laughed easily as Mori cut in. The tension seemed to flow out of him and he moved like the music was flooding through him.
Kyoya could see the moment he accidentally caught Hikaru’s eye, though. His shoulders stiffened like a kite-string in a gust, all pointed and rigid. He excused himself quickly after that and found himself another glass of drink.
Hikaru joined Mori and Honey as soon as he left, hardly batting an eye at his brother’s departure. Kyoya kept his eye on him as the night went on. He couldn’t hide his covert glances Kaoru’s way.
By the time they were given the okay to trickle back to the hotel, Kyoya was no closer to confidence. He liked to be in control and if knowledge was power then Kyoya was currently scrambling for leverage. He thought he could accept letting them all go but he’d never considered that just seeing them would drag that primal need for dominance back.
The party continued after he left. Only Mori and Kaoru had joined him in leaving early, with Mori citing exhaustion and Kaoru not even bothering with excuses. He clearly just wanted an escape and the concern in Tamaki’s eye as he bid them off made Kyoya wonder just what he was escaping from.
He tried to pace off the thoughts. His mind was still running a thousand miles per minute and he knew he’d never sleep with a hundred questions on his mind.
Crudely, he thought back on Tamaki’s assumptions the day before. If Tamaki had expected him to… have some fun on his stay, why shouldn’t he? The more he tried to shake the thought the more he began to think he might need it. The wedding stress was already taking a toll on his body so why shouldn’t he? It wasn’t often anymore he was treated to a bed as nice and a setting as anonymous as this for a playground.
Making his way down to the hotel bar, he let himself enjoy the night air. Summer in Japan was something he did miss. The heat there wasn’t the same as the heat in Boston and the summer traditions didn’t have the same nostalgia. Just feeling the sticky hotness of a summer night felt like high school. It felt like beach trips and club events and when his sister would bring down the big fan from the storage room for them to sit in front of while the staff worried they’d catch colds.
The cool air of the bar, by comparison, felt like stepping back into adulthood. It had been easy, when he first moved so far away from home, to gravitate to gay bars. It felt like the first step into the world he’d thrown himself at. Quickly it became a habit. Bad breakup, gay bar, hookup, romance, and repeat. Bars quickly went from an exciting window into a subculture he needed in on, to a tedious venture.
Regardless of how nice this bar was, with it’s suave layout and on-trend lighting features, he was sure the night would fall into the usual tedium. That was until he caught a familiar eye as he approached the bar.
“Ah,” Kaoru said, leaning casually against the bar as if he’d been expecting him, “my fellow black sheep.”
Taking that as an invitation, Kyoya took the seat beside him. He’d never liked sitting at the bar with the staff throwing looks their way, and another time he may have asked to move to a table. The stool wasn’t uncomfortable but he itched to fidget in his seat.
“I wasn’t sure I’d have the chance to chat,” he said. “You’ve kept yourself occupied.”
Kaoru huffed a humourless laugh, his gaze scanning over Kyoya. It was a familiar mannerism but not one he could remember seeing on Kaoru. Perhaps it was his ego that lead him to wonder if it was his own influence that trained the redhead to school his expressions so coolly. He didn’t want to give himself too much credit after so much time.
“I couldn’t miss today even if I wanted to.”
He didn’t have to explain for Kyoya to understand: he had wanted to miss it. Perhaps even planned to. Kyoya was almost sure it had come down to it being those two. They never could stay away; any of them.
“It’s strange, isn’t it,” Kaoru continued. “We’ve been in the same city for years, half way across the world, and it takes these two to force us to realise it.”
He hummed in agreement.
“Tamaki has always found ways to bring us together,” he nodded.
“I have to admit, I think I prefer a wedding to a host club.”
“I’m not so sure,” Kyoya said, swirling his drink absently. “I would certainly never take those hours back.”
“Easy for you to say,” Kaoru said with a lighthearted roll of his eyes. “The others may have missed you declining your bookings but you couldn’t get that past me.”
“And you never even thought to use it against me. I’m almost disappointed.”
Kaoru lent back in his chair, glass in hand and eyes relentless. He smiled like a fox and crossed his legs.
“You never gave me any reason to,” he shrugged.
Kyoya struggled to stifle his amusement as he watched the game present itself before his eyes. He knew this part like the back of his hand so it barely caught him off guard.
Something in the back of his mind was less happy. A muffled objection tried to scream at him not to risk this one: Kaoru was too close to everything else, he’d known him too long for anything good to come of it, and he barely knew if his chase could be honestly reciprocated.
Still, if Kyoya knew anything it was that those eyes were trained. It was almost hard to recognise the man in front of him as Kaoru when he was so clearly experienced in playing alluring. He easily performed an elegance Kyoya knew didn’t come naturally to him.
If anything the way Kaoru flirted surprised him more than the fact he had. If Kaoru had fallen into recklessness the way the others had implied then tipsily sleeping with an old friend was the least of his concerns. Chances are it was an adrenaline rush. At this point in his reclamation process, Kyoya knew that feeling well enough to fall biblically from his act of indifference.
“The devil twin has a heart after all.”
“Oh please,” he said with an eye roll. “Don’t be a hypocrite, ‘Shadow King’. Half the reason you bought those numbers down was you keep Tamaki ranking first.”
He couldn’t help the way his lip twitched up. Someone, it seemed, had payed more attention than he would admit.
“I imagine you also noticed that it was hardly a selfless act. Keeping Tamaki happy had its own benefits.”
Kaoru surprised him with a loud laugh. The bartender paused his cleaning to glance their direction at the sudden noise.
“Sure, I had my suspicions,” Kaoru smirked. “I never expected you to admit it, though.”
“I was a child. I’m shocked I haven’t been confronted on it more often. I was hardly subtle,” he said, downing his drink to hide his expression at the words.
“I doubt the others noticed.”
The bitterness laced in his tone didn’t pass Kyoya by. He ought to ask but once again he didn’t need to.
“So you had to tell them?” he asked.
Rather than answer, Kaoru sipped his drink, smirking into the glass.
“Not exactly. Word travels quick in my family and quicker between those five. Probably quickest of all in the press,” he explained vaguely. “I’m surprised you didn’t get a text about it.”
Kyoya could begin to piece together a picture of the fallout but the edges were still frayed. Tamaki could be ignorant but never maliciously so and Haruhi would never let him get far with bigotry. Mori and Honey too.
The real problem was obvious but he couldn’t picture it. Hours of the duo avoiding gazes and keeping distance still didn’t compute.
“I didn’t know at all,” Kyoya said. “Not until you just confirmed it.”
“And you never had suspicions?”
He gave a smirk to mirror Kaoru’s own.
“I had them,” he said. “Of course, I’d never have asked. That unspoken agreement was nice.”
“I’m glad you noticed it too,” Kaoru said, smirk morphing into a hazy smile.
Their drifting eyes met and neither looked away. The bartender filled their mutually empty glasses but neither acknowledged him. Kyoya mentally lamented his rudeness, assuring himself that bad behaviour was worth it to maintain the private world they were crafting for the night.
“You could never help yourself,” he said, leaning closer until their knees pressed together. “You’re quite a flirt.”
“I wasn’t the one parading his daddy kink,” Kaoru threw back, pushing his leg closer. “Don’t go thinking you got away with that one.”
He shrugged.
“I like pushing my luck.”
Kaoru licked his lips and pulled his leg away. He paused to down his drink.
“You know,” he said, as he finished the glass, “the bars in our rooms are fully stocked.”
“I imagine they’re costly, though,” Kyoya replied, playing coy as he slowly caught up on his remaining drink.
“Would that be a problem?” Kaoru asked.
The question pushed them to the end of their act. Kaoru reached over and placed an oh-so-casual hand on Kyoya’s thigh, his touch feather light.
“Perhaps not if we were to split the cost,” he said, the words a blatant offer.
“A bottle between us shouldn’t be so bad,” Kaoru agreed.
He got to his feet and Kyoya finished the last of his drink as he stood. Turning to go, he let his hand fall to the dip of Kaoru’s back, guiding him forward. They both knew what the action meant: a declaration of intent on full display as they left to make good on their unspoken promise.